War of words among BJP leaders over Puri Ratna Bhandar Key missing

At a time when the State Government and other stake holders of Sri Jagannath Temple in Puri have been criticised over the issue of missing keys of Sri Mandir’s Ratna Bhandar, the war of words between two senior leaders of BJP heated up the matter and dragged the saffron party into back foot in Odisha on Wednesday.

Quoting the statement of Puri Shankaracharya Nischalananda Saraswati, senior BJP leader Bijoy Mohapatra on Tuesday said that BJP,  which shared power with the BJD and was holding the Law Ministry from 2000-2009, had not taken credible measures to end mismanagement in the affairs of Puri Sri Jagannath temple.

However, veteran BJP leader Biswabhusan Harichandan called a press meet at State party office in Bhubaneswar today and hit back Mohapatra in this regard.

“Not only the government but there are some other people who are also rattled by the BJP’s protests over missing Ratna Bhandar key”, Harichandan said.

“Bijoy Mohapatra’s comment on the issue is unfortunate. He should have understood all the aspects and collected information before commenting anything on the issue of missing keys of Sri Mandir’s Ratna Bhandar”, he added.

Notably, Puri Sri Mandir comes under the jurisdiction of the Law department of the State government. Harichandan was the Law Minister in the BJD-BJP coalition government from 2000-2009.